Irrelevant Home Pages and the Value of Non-Directed Research

Mark Hurst, writing in the Good Experience Blog, shares some interesting insight into how web surfers really use the web.  Mark talks about a recent study his company did where they observed “dozens of customers using dozens of websites.”  The difference in his study, was that when asked to evaluate a company’s web site, the customers were not told where to start (such as a site’s home page) but were instead told to get there any way they wanted.  The big conclusion:  “Google has made home pages virtually irrelevant.”

Stated another way: many users, when not directed how to start, begin their sessions by going to Google and searching for what they want. (A small minority use Yahoo, and almost no one uses any other search engine.) Some companies, depending on their size and popularity, also have a fair percentage of users who do type the Web address directly into the browser….  Often the search results link pointed to a destination page in the middle of the website, which caused the customer to miss the home page altogether.

Why is this significant, you ask?  What does your website look like once you get past the first page?  If a potential customer or client gets jumps to the middle of your site via Google, can they find their way out?  Do they even know where they are to begin with?  Mark continues:

Customer experience is mainly about understanding, and serving, the key unmet needs of the customer. This is a strategic issue that's poorly addressed with a tactical research method. You simply can't find out the customers' priorities if you give them a list of pre-written tasks; there are too many assumptions built in. Instead, why not just ask them to show their experience?

Read the entire post.  Show it to your web designer and think about it when preparing your next client survey.  Yet another way Google is changing the rules.